11 people have been arrested in Madrid and Sevilla in a money laundering operation called Pelican

They formed a network which transferred as much as 20 million € from Spain to China and those arrested are in majority Chinese and Byelorussian

Feb 25, 2015 - 2:26 PM

The National Police and the Guardia Civil have discovered the network is based in Poland, and has ramifications in several European countries and they used several banks in Poland to launder the money being taken from Spain to China.

They have been charged with crimes against the Treasury, belonging to a criminal organisation, money laundering and contraband.

The first arrests were carried out last Sunday when a vigilance teams from both the National Police and the Guardia Civil detected a presumed handover of money. At that time four people were detained in Madrid, two of Chinese origin and two from Byelorussia.

The handover was around 300,000 € and this amount of money was laundered between six and ten times a month, which means the organisation it taking three million € out of Spain illicitly.

The rest of the arrests, seven in total, happened on the morning of February 23 in Madrid City in the district of Fuenlabrada and in Sevilla in the district of Griñón.

The investigation has been directed by Instruction Court 1 in Fuenlabrada and by the Special Prosecutor against Corruption and Organised Crime, and started more than a year ago when the Polish authorities warned of the presence in Spain or a branch of a criminal organisation which was operating at an international level.

During one of the numerous trips on their way to Poland, despite their high security measures, they were stopped on the border trying to enter France. After an hour long search they found 40 packets which contained more then 700,000 €